Protected
by imaginotaur
Summary: Felicity is being stalked. When things get out of hand, Oliver steps in. He notices her strange, evasive behavior, does a bit of stalking himself, and discovers that an obsessed intern has been watching Felicity and occasionally breaking into her home. Fearing for her safety, Oliver "invites" Felicity to stay in the Queen household, but will she truly be safe there?


A/N: **Hello! This is a little Olicity story that I started a while ago. I quite like the idea behind it, but I'm not exactly sure how far I'm going to go with this story. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Please tell me what you would like to see happen in this story/anything you like or don't care for. I'm open to your ideas, too, and will give you credit for them if I decide to use them in my story! This story is, for the most part, going to shy away from the crime-fighting and focus on Olicity. In other words, there will be an abundant amount of fluff. Enjoy and thank you for reading!**

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this work of fiction.

**Chapter 1**

If there was one thing to say about Felicity Smoak, and there were many things, it was that she was a generally non-paranoid person. The things that went bump in the night had always been nothing more than a trivial distraction. To her, someone seemingly following you home from the coffee shop was just a coincidence. These things really didn't bother her; she'd grown up reading too many horror novels and comics dealing with crime-fighting heroes for that.

Still, Felicity couldn't help but get chills that evening when she returned home from a late night spent with Oliver and Digg. Oliver had been out doing some Lone Ranger investigation work while Digg sat at the desk, staring blankly at a computer monitor. It was nice to know someone else was drawing a blank this week, too. She hadn't been quite on-par for the past few days due to sleep deprivation and probably a thousand other things, to which she lay blame to for this ridiculous feeling of paranoia.

And it was _ridiculous. _At least five times, she'd picked up her blunt-force-trauma-object of choice and checked all the rooms of her flat for any bad guys. And, okay, maybe the fifth round was a re-enactment of one of her favorite mobster crime movies. Still, she couldn't shake it off. Now, Felicity was a practical girl, and she knew that when feelings didn't go away for a while, there was an underlying cause that should probably be dealt with. So. She'd went with her gut and bought a higher-grade alarm system.

She felt she owed this to herself, seeing as (A) she was an accessory to Starling City's most wanted vigilante and she had been once and was bound again to be used as leverage against him at one point or the other- this always happens in any sort of comic involving a young, good-hearted crime fighter, always- and (B) low grade technology just wasn't her style. And, just to reassure herself, she'd hardwired the system to report any discrepancies straight to the Bat Cave's alert system.

However, none of this stopped her from having to triple check that all the windows and doors were sealed tight and locked just so she could get a little shut-eye. Even then, she slept with a couple blunt-force-trauma-objects nearby.

Oliver wasn't a very generous person when it came to sharing his food. This was something that Felicity had to find out the hard way, as she stared at the empty pizza box. Now, she knew that a man of his stature and carbohydrate intake level couldn't be expected to eat a small meal, but seven eighths of a pizza was a bit ridiculous. She'd only gotten one piece! A girl couldn't be expected to perform highly illegal hacking tasks on only _one _piece of pizza.

"Oliver! You ate all the pizza!" Felicity proclaimed, throwing the empty box into the trash can with extra force. He looked over from the hundred pound weights he seemed to be juggling.

"You're right. I should probably add an extra fifteen minutes to my training session." he said flatly, only smirking when he was turned around and she couldn't see.

"Oh, come on. At least have the decency to apologize," She began, and he could tell she was going to go off on one of her rants, "You'd think someone who spends all his spare time fighting injustices wouldn't rob a poor, hard-working girl, and _friend, _might I add, of her only meal since a granola bar-esque breakfast, but no. Oliver Queen can only do right for so long, and then he snaps and decides he deserves to eat the _entire_-"

"Felicity, quiet," He interrupts, "You may have noticed that Digg isn't here, and that's because I told him to go get you guys some burgers from Empire on 41st and Louise."

"Hmm," Felicity contemplated, "you _might_ be forgiven..." She trailed off, nervous to ask the question she needed to ask, but she asked it anyway, "Since you've wronged me in the worst possible way, do you think you could redeem yourself by giving me this next weekend off?"

"Why? You know we have an upcoming task." Oliver said, not so happy with her wanting to bail out on the Jacobson ordeal, a minor case if he was being honest, but they'd put too much time into it to waste any more. They'd been working on it for a cumulative month and were so close to bringing the guy down.

"I know. I'm sorry. My Mother...she doesn't understand how scheduling works. My cousins from Louisiana just flew in and she wants me to come stay the weekend. To be honest, I could use the break..." Felicity said.

"Is everything okay?" Oliver asked, concerned with the way she'd trailed off. She sounded like she was under a lot of stress, which was a given. He knew how hard she worked, both at Queen Consolidated and here, helping him. Just one of these jobs could work a person into the ground, but not Felicity. She was resilient, dealing with problems as they came along and making her way through unscathed. But the way she'd said it, the tone of her voice, it gave her away.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tuckered out." She offered a smile, sitting down at her desk, her grin disappearing behind one of her three monitors. He wanted to know what was really going on. But Oliver knew better than anyone that asking the _right _questions wasn't a good way to get Felicity to talk. Instead, he sauntered over to her desk and made her an offer she couldn't quite refuse.

"Tell you what. You can take next weekend off. And, since I committed a heinous crime by eating _all_ of the pizza, I'll give you a ride home after you get your burger." Felicity had to admit, that didn't sound too bad.

"Deal. But you'd better put a shirt on. Your sweat is melting my computer monitors." She replied, shooing him away from her desk and finishing up on some research.

Felicity woke the next day, happy to see the sun in the sky on her day off. Not that she'd be joining the outside world on this lovely day, she had too many things to do that, thankfully, didn't involve any vigilantes in green hoods. That part of her day was far off in the back of her mind and would only resurface around seven o'clock. Until then, she had her entire flat to herself, and, better yet, there was absolutely no need to put pants on or tie her hair up after she got out of the shower.

After quickly stepping into the hallway to check her mailbox, Felicity ran about the flat and opened up all the curtains, revealing the almost floor to ceiling windows. The view was a beautiful one, the sun shining prettily over Starling City, making the steel tops of buildings glisten. She was lucky to have this view, very lucky indeed. Her flat was an old penthouse from the thirties. Sure, it was a bit rundown and there was exposed pipework all over the place, but that was a heck of a lot better than exposed wiring. And the place had character. Who cared if the paint was chipping in some places? With all the plants she'd put but the windows and around the house, it very closely resembled Poison Ivy's lair, and though she was more of a Cat woman herself, that was a total plus.

She started to make her way to her office when there was a sharp rap at the door. And then the sinking feeling began to make itself known in her stomach. She let out a shaky, frustrated breath and set her stack of mail and bills on the counter, then made her way to the door, glancing through the peep-hole. Oliver. Huh, strange that he'd be here so early in the morning. He looked irritated and in a hurry. Not good.

"Felicity, I know you're on the other side of the door, open up." He commanded, his voice traveling through the cracks around the heavy oak door.

"One minute, I'm not decent." Felicity said back, about to take off to her room to put some pants and a bra on.

"Felicity! Just open the door. It's urgent." Oliver said hurriedly, and she complied, using the massive wooden door to hide herself as he stepped in. Felicity quickly grabbed her red pea coat from the hook behind her and put it on, closing the door, locking it, and typing in the code on her security system. She turned to Oliver, who was watching her in amusement. She hated it when he did that.

"You've really got the place under maximum security," he commented, absently eyeing her blood red coat and bare thighs beneath it. She just rolled her eyes at him, annoyed by how perfect he looked leaning against the wall in her entryway. Seriously, she had gotten up at a decent hour and only had time to shower and throw on an oversize sweater and some underwear, and here he was in dress pants and a pale blue dress shirt, his sleeves rolled up and his silver Versace watch gleaming brightly. Ugh.

"You said this was urgent." She huffed, crossing her arms before making her way to her bedroom, where she impolitely slammed the door in his face. She slipped some simple black leggings on and clasped a neon yellow, lace bra around her shoulders before replacing her cozy sweater, which was bubble gum pink and featured lavender flowers. She really didn't care how ridiculous it would look to the man in the hall. This was her day off, which he'd so rudely interrupted, her day to wear her cutesy sweaters and walk about her house without pants on. He was getting the full treatment.

When she stepped into the hall two minutes later, Felicity was surprised not to hear any sarcastic remarks from Mr. Queen, he kept quiet. _Excellent,_ she thought to herself, _he's scared of me, _"So, what was so important that you needed to come here and interrupt my day off?"

"I need you to do something for me, in regards to Andrew Jacobson and his personal affairs," Oliver said, absentmindedly straightening his collar as they both stepped into her office. It was a spacious room composed mainly of desks and computers and numerous computer monitors. There was a rod going from one wall to the next that housed a few dozen hanging potted plants, some of their vines trailing all the way to the floor, framing the huge window that took up the entire wall. The ceilings were so tall that Oliver wondered how she managed the task of watering the plants every day. Along the walls were built-in bookshelves, which housed hundreds of books, ranging from medical terminology dictionaries to classic novels and comics.

"And what exactly do you need to know about him?" Felicity asked, her fingers already clacking away at the keys as he hovered over her, watching the monitor.

"Travel plans." Oliver stated simply, his hands gripping the back of her chair. Felicity pulled up a profile of the man in question, Andrew Jacobson, twenty three years of age, son of Roland Jacobson. He was a newly integrated member of the family business, fresh from dropping out of the University his Dad had probably paid for him to attend. His record suggested that he was a bit of a wild card; Dad should've known not to send him to school where he'd be required to play nice. She quickly threw up a firewall that would allow her to stay hidden while hacking into their bank account records. Most of the money they used didn't go through the bank, but this one had to.

"Mr. Roland Jacobson recently purchased four first-class tickets to Madrid, Spain. Two for his sons Andrew and Lester, and two for Mr. Nell Sanders and Mr. Jakob Petrovitch. Petrovitch...does that ring any bells? It sounds familiar to me..." Felicity reported, looking up and back at Oliver, who had a look on his face that made her stomach turn. Something was going on. She could tell that he was about to bolt without any explanation as to where he was going or what was going on.

"Figure out why they're flying commercial." Oliver asked, his grip on the back of her chair tightening. He watched as she worked her way through encryptions and came to the answer.

"Their private jet has been repossessed. They could easily get the money back to purchase another aircraft through their underground business; they wouldn't do this unless it was urgent. The flight leaves tonight, and intelligence documents suggest that there will be other men of importance to Jacobson on the flight, possibly people that work for him. Hey, where are you going?" Felicity asked, swiveling around in her chair and taking hold of his wrist.

"I have to go tonight. Make sure they don't get on that flight." Oliver said, stopping in his tracks only momentarily.

"Are you forgetting that you have the privilege to be acquainted with the best hacking girl in Starling City? Sit down for a moment. I'll cancel the reservations and we can look into this a little bit." She suggested, pulling out another swivel chair from one of her desks and gesturing for him to sit down. Oliver relented after a few seconds of her looking up at him and patting the spot next to her. They spent the next half hour gaining intel on the Jacobson's plans in Madrid, which really weren't that devious. For a mob family, anyway.

"...And once the airport security drops them off at the justice department and they're forced to go to trial for financial fraud, which no lawyer will be able to get them out of, it will trace the money all the way back to Roland Jacobson. Boom, bam, prison, that's what I say...uhhm sorry for that. Anyway, nothing to worry about now. See how much easier life is when you have a Felicity Smoak at your disposal? Not that I'm really at your disposal, I could've kicked you out for parading in here like...wow. I'm gonna stop now." Felicity finished nervously, twirling a lock of her hair, which had mostly dried into wavy ringlets.

Oliver just chuckled. He had to admit, she did just save him a lot of unnecessary trouble, "As usual, Felicity, you're wonderful. I'll leave you to have your day off now."

Felicity beamed at the compliment. Hell yes, she was wonderful, and he would do well to remember that, too. She followed him out of her office and back down the hall. He was about to leave when he turned around unexpectedly, making her jump back about three inches. He laughed before speaking, "I was just thinking…would you like to get something to eat? It _is _the least I could do."

Felicity smiled, "Sure, as long as we're not going to one of those really fancy places that serve fish eggs and snails." She said, grabbing her coat and lacing up her baby blue converse.

"Never," He replied, absently taking her arm as they walked down the hall.

They ended up going to a little cafe just down the street from her flat. She claimed that it served the best sandwiches in the world and he took her word for it. Felicity ordered her favorite, the green eggs and ham sandwich, while Oliver opted for a simple Wisconsin cheese soup. She teased him for picking such a safe, generic meal, saying, "Come on, Oliver, live a little."

To which he responded to by taking a bite of her sandwich, and was forced to admit that it was pretty delicious. They had coffees and somehow got on to the topic of high school, which was a bit amusing for both of them to listen to. Oliver, as she would have assumed, attended a private school, where he was exceedingly popular. And Felicity told him about how she was on the debate team and part of the book club and how she wore ridiculous red horn-rimmed glasses that she still kept to put on and re-live the good old days.

"Oh, I have got to see you in those." He joked, taking a sip from his coffee.

"If you really want to, but I'll have to kill you afterwards." She poked back and they laughed, both aware of how carefree they were and how rare that was, and not thinking much of anything else. Their conversation was an endless swapping of funny stories and childhood memories. Oliver's phone rang, it was Thea. She was wondering where he'd been. He checked his watch. It was four o'clock. He and Felicity had been here for about two hours, he couldn't believe they'd lost track of time for that long.

Felicity asked for the check, checking her phone and realizing what time it was, "I had a lot of fun today, thanks for inviting me out." Felicity said after Oliver hung up the phone.

"So I didn't ruin your day off?" He joked.

"Not entirely." She replied, and they left the cafe together. Oliver insisted on walking her home, but she argued that it was only a block away, that she was a big girl, and that she could handle herself. All of which were perfectly valid reasons. They parted ways and Felicity walked home smiling.

Her smile faded, however, when she met the scene of her apartment. She'd apparently forgotten to activate the alarm system before she left. The door was slightly ajar. One of the windows was open. Nothing was missing that she could see, but everything was just slightly out of place. Someone had picked them up and set them back down.

She did the only thing she could think of doing, went to the only place she knew she was safe. Before she left, she dared to grab some of her things, her laptop, her keys, and her phone was on her. Felicity shut down her computer system and stole the hard drive from the back, so no one could trace any of her hacks. She hurriedly made her way out of the building and drove to the Bat Cave, where she phoned Oliver.

"Oliver? Someone broke into my house."


End file.
